From the Beginning

I'm addicted to writing this story so whether you like it or not I plan to keep writing it. I know the first chapter was a little depressing. I'm sorry about that. For the record I hate all the characters I created. The next few chapters will probably be depressing too but you'll start to see the Robin egg hatch. Yay!
Disclaimer: I don't own Batman or the characters

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Living in an orphanage stinks. That was the conclusion that Dick came to over the next two weeks. The dusty old children's home seemed more like a prison cell than a house. In fact its appearance was so dreary that hardly any prospective parents ever visited and when they did they usually left in a hurry; childless. The food wasn't anything to brag about either. It was like the cook had rummaged around the Gotham dumpsters for food then put it all in a blender. It was gross.

'This is like eating recycled garbage.' Dick decided as he forced himself to swallow another spoonful of dinner. Despite the gross factor everyone ate the mystery food quickly because they knew that once Brack came in it became his food.

"Hey brats line up and bring your bowls!"

'Speak of the devil...' Dick turned from his meal to watch the other orphans scramble to give Brack their food. Every kid in the orphanage knew that whoever Brack liked was spared beatings.

Brack ate all of the other kids' leftovers and was licking his fingers when Dick got up to return his bowl to the kitchen. It was only half eaten but he refused to give his food to Brack. He didn't care about being beaten up as long as that jerk didn't get his food. Usually he got away with it. But today wasn't his lucky day. Chip, Brack's right-hand man, saw Dick dump the remainder of his meal into the garbage. Dick had been halfway through the dining hall and towards safety when a loud voice stopped him in his tracks.

"What the hell do you think you're doing circus brat!" Brack's voice echoed throughout the dining hall, causing the other orphans to scatter about the room and hide under the tables. Dick flinched at the furious yell, which he knew was directed at him, but stood his ground when the bully and his crew came upon him.

They stormed up to him and formed a circle around him. Dick looked over his shoulder as 3 boys behind him caged him in. Big mistake. While Dick was distracted Brack's meaty hand shot out and grabbed his hair and lifted him off his feet. Dick screamed as he felt his hair ripping out of his scalp. At his scream Brack dropped him back onto the ground where he collapsed, gripping his bleeding head.

Brack simply smirked at the orphans crumpled form, enjoying Dick's pain. "You should know little birdie, wasting food is a horrible crime." Brack reached down and yanked Dick off the floor by the scruff of his neck. Dick began to struggle helplessly in the iron grip; blood from his scalp ran down his small face. Brack then dragged him back over to where the trash cans were.

"Empty the trash can." Brack told his followers, who quickly poured the garbage all over the floor. Brack smirked at their handiwork then hauled Dick over and threw him into the mess saying, "No more wasting food, circus brat... Eat it."

Dick looked up from where he lay in the garbage, tears and blood running down his cheeks, and glared. Even though his scalp was ripped and he was covered in garbage he made no move to obey Brack's orders. He simply sat up shakily, wiped blood out of his eyes, and stayed there glaring up at the older boy.

"No."

His voice had been faint but determined and all the kids who heard him gasped at his bravery. Needless to say Brack didn't appreciate Dick's second act of rebellion any more than he had the first. Snarling the older boy leapt towards him, intending to force feed him. However, Dick saw this attack coming and, with no distractions, was able to nimbly flip backwards; out of the trash pile. So instead of landing on Dick, Brack landed face first in garbage.

The entire dining hall fell silent; fearful of the repercussions if they made a sound. But then the silence was shattered by one small giggle, which erupted into a hall full of laughing children. Even Brack's ever faithful followers were falling over themselves laughing.

Brack was furious. He loathed being made a fool out of. He slowly rose from the garbage, the hall quickly falling silent at his expression. Brack wanted blood; the circus brat's blood. There was a problem though. Brack slowly surveyed the hall before turning his hate filled eyes upon the other orphans in the hall.

"Where is Richard Grayson?"

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Dick quickly ran out of the orphanage doors and sprinted towards the safety of Gotham's streets. There he'd be able to hide himself in between the buildings and escape from Brack's fury, at least for a few hours. He could climb up on top of the buildings and take shelter under the Gotham skyline.

Dick knew Brack would soon be hunting him down; furious and bloodthirsty. He ran as fast as he little legs could carry him. Once he reached the edge of the city buildings he leapt up to grab the edge of a fire escape and scrambled up the rusty metal stairs. When he climbed up on the top of the building, he crouched down and peeked over the edge. Sure enough, Brack and his group came running into the city, searching for the little acrobat. But when they didn't find him around the city limits they continued running deeper into the darkness of Gotham.

Dick stayed perched on the edge of the building for a few more minutes, to be safe. Instead of climbing down though he chose to leap from building to building; one flip after another. He ran across rooftops in the opposite direction of the bullies and, when he felt that he was a safe distance from them, he dropped to the ground in the middle of the shopping district.

Although Dick had been to cities before, with the circus, he'd never actually gone into one. Now he was standing on the sidewalk on a very crowded street. People were bustling all around him and different sounds of the city were bouncing around his head. Feeling overwhelmed Dick backed away and ducked inside an electronics store behind him.

The interior of the store was small. It had a few radios sitting on shelves and the person at the counter was fast asleep, not to mention the fact that half the TVs in the store were broken. One TV was on though, with the news lady speaking to the camera. Dick had seen a TV before but they had never kept them in the circus, so he'd never actually watched one.

'Maybe I should wait in here until later tonight. Brack would never look for me here and I'd like to watch TV.' Dick thought as he lowered himself onto the floor in front of the TV.

At first the news reported about sports, then weather, and then it turned to the Gotham Police Force. Dick leaned forward; extremely eager to find out if the police had caught Zucco yet. He had gone into the GCPD a few weeks earlier and had told them about Zucco. Many of them had laughed at his story but one man with red hair had assured him that they'd do their best. Now Dick could find out if they really did.

"Vicki Vale here at the Gotham Police Department to talk with Commissioner Gordon about the death of the Flying Graysons. Commissioner, any words?"

"Actually yes, we've finally had a break in the case. We examined the evidence and the eyewitness accounts and the Graysons deaths have been classified as accidental."

"Well Commissioner I must say that's a relief. Gotham doesn't need another-"

Vicki Vale's words faded into background noise as Dick realized what the Commissioner had just said. His parents' deaths were accidents! Why would they think that! He'd told them about Zucco! How could they believe that! Tears suddenly began to flow as Dick leapt up and tore out of the store, running for the outskirts of the city.

By the time Dick ran blindly into the junkyard at the edge of Gotham he was sobbing uncontrollably. The police had given up. His parents were dead and Zucco was going to get away with killing them!

"It isn't fair!" Dick screamed through his sobs. Why did they give up! If they gave up the case his parents wouldn't receive the justice they deserved. If they didn't stay on the case the man who killed them would be free to kill again. Zucco would be free.

Suddenly feeling a raging fury flow through him Dick leapt onto an old mattress with a yell and began punching it. His little fists rained down on the squeaky mattress nonstop for at least 3 minutes before he became tired enough to stop. His body was trembling and a few cuts now decorated his hands from when he punched the sharp springs.

"It's not fair..." Dick whispered broken heartedly as he slid off the mattress.

Dick sat on the ground, crying, until he noticed that the sun had gone down. Pulling himself together he got to his feet and began walking away from the junkyard. He had already decided that he wasn't going back to the orphanage. Dick hated it there and he could take care of himself. Even if he had to sleep in a dumpster, he was too emotionally exhausted to care. Maybe he deserved it for not convincing the police that his parents were murdered.

As Dick stumbled along down the dark streets of Gotham he heard a shriek. Snapping out of his depressed haze, he stood frozen, waiting to see if he really heard a shriek or if it was a trick of his mind. Suddenly it came again, a loud scream, from the alley at the end of the street.

"Help!" The lady's voice screamed.

'Someone's in trouble.'

Without a second thought, Dick took off sprinting towards the alley. He didn't think about the danger or the fact that he was just a kid. All he thought about was that there was a person in danger, that someone needed help; his help. He turned into the alley and was greeted by the sight of a burly man with a crowbar standing over a trembling woman.

The women saw him at the end of the alley and yelled for help once more. The man who stood above her turned to see who she had yelled too but Dick had already flipped up onto the fire escape. He crouched down, hidden in the shadows, and watched the big man look around. Once the man was certain that no one was there he turned back to the women. Big mistake.

Dick leapt off the fire escape towards the man. His feet hit the man's back with a thud as he flipped down. He then used the back as a springboard to flip down and land in front of the women. Burly man fell down to his knees and Dick took up a defensive stance in front of the women. The disoriented man rose up from the ground and looked to see what had hit him. When he saw Dick, with his little fists raised, he gaped for a moment before he began laughing.

"Well look at that Sally! You got yourself a little knight in shining armor!" Burly man said once he stopped laughing, a feral grin on his face. "You feeling lucky kid, cause I'm a bit bigger than you...tell you what, you leave now and I'll forget all about the bump on my head. If you don't..." The man stopped talking when he noticed Dick's face becoming more determined.

This man reminded him of Zucco. Hurting a helpless person, threatening children; that's exactly what he had done. Real Zucco might be getting away but there was no way Dick was letting this man escape. Burly man was going down.

The man seemed to sense a fight, his feral grin widened and he began to crack his knuckles. "Fine kid. I don't mind a little collateral damage; just remember you asked for it."

A huge fist suddenly swung out at Dick but to the man's surprise the little boy easily dodged it. Burly man took another swing at Dick but missed again. Getting frustrated the man let out a yell and leapt at the boy. Dick flipped over Burly man's back and, in mid- flip, kicked the back of his meaty head; knocking him out.

Dick turned around and stared wide-eyed at the man he just took down. The guy was at least twice his size and yet Dick was able to beat him up without getting one scratch. Dick hadn't even realized how much danger he was potentially in until now.

"Thank you! Oh God, thank you!" The women's exclamation broke Dick from his musings. She looked horrible. Her dress was torn, her face was scratched, and it was obvious she had been crying. Yet despite her horrendous appearance she was beaming like a child that just met Santa.

"I called the Police when Pete came after me but they wouldn't have got here in time if you hadn't been here." The lady said with a wide smile. "You were amazing! How you just danced around him before leaping in to finish him off; just like the heroes on TV. Oh! But I suppose saving me makes you a hero too!"

The lady was still beaming at him as she finished her spiel and Dick felt himself begin to grin in response. She thought he was amazing. Dick hadn't received any praise since he'd been taken from the circus. It was nice to feel wanted again, even just by this lady.

Dick's head whipped around to look at the end of the alleyway at the sound of the loud sirens. The police were coming. For a moment Dick felt relief that the police were here to help, but then he realized that being caught by the police would mean going back to the orphanage, and his relief turned to fear. He couldn't go back. Thinking quickly, Dick turned back around to look at the lady and put on his most serious face.

"Can you tell the police that Batman saved you? I don't want to get in trouble with Batman for working in his city." He tried to make his voice sound sincere but the words really just sounded like a plea. The excuse was good though. Everyone always said that all the other Justice Leaguers weren't allowed in Gotham. Whether it was believable or not the lady seemed to buy it.

"Oh of course! I wouldn't want you to get into trouble. Go! I won't tell a soul." She said, still smiling a blinding smile. Dick gave a tentative smile back before running out of the alleyway and disappearing around the buildings.

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Later that night Dick lay on the old mattress he had been beating earlier that day. After sprinting away from the police he'd returned to the junkyard, grabbed the mattress, and dragged it into an old plastic tool shed that had been left in the junkyard. It was a pretty nice shed; a place to live. Since he wasn't going back to the orphanage it was the best place he could think of. Tomorrow during the day he'd sneak in and get his stuff. He hadn't started to go to school yet but all the other kids did. The place would practically be empty.

For now though, Dick was happy to be able to relax. Even in his room at the orphanage he wasn't safe. Brack was his roommate. This was the first night in a month that Dick could actually sleep without fear of a beating. He'd still have nightmares; he always had nightmares, but no one would beat him for crying or waking them. It's funny how before he came to the orphanage he loved being with people and now he preferred being alone. It was nice to be alone, and right now he was blissfully alone.

Being alone like this was giving Dick time to think about today's events. Looking at the bad things; by standing up to Brack Dick had basically lost his "home", his head still hurt and was crusted with dried blood, and Dick's parents deaths were classified as accidents. That means that Dick was now not only an orphan, but homeless and dirty too. Dick's eyes began to tear up again as he thought of his parents. What would they say if they saw him now?

"Don't cry my little robin. Every cloud has a silver lining." His mother's voice spoke in his thoughts so clearly that he sat up and looked around the shed, to make sure she wasn't there. Which, of course, she wasn't. Slightly disappointed Dick settled back down on the mattress and thought of what she said.

'A silver lining...well...I don't have to live with Brack anymore.' Dick smiled at the thought, instantly happier, and quickly tried to think of any other "silver linings."

'I flew from building to building and I saved a lady...she called me her hero..." Suddenly Dick realized something. He beat up a bad guy; a big one. He'd protected someone from a bad guy. Just like the heroes on TV...like Batman! Dick leapt up from the mattress beaming.

"I could be a hero! I could save people and be a hero like Batman; without powers! I could catch Zucco!" Dick yelled out to no one, too happy to keep quiet. "I could be a detective. I'd get the evidence then track Zucco down and beat him up!"

Dick threw himself back on the mattress giggling, feeling happier than he had in a month. He knew what he had to do now. His parents had to be avenged. Richard Grayson would become a hero.

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Well? Any good? I hate the whole Brack and orphanage crew and thankfully they won't be seen for a while. They will get what's coming to them...eventually. Next chapter is the birth of Robin! Batman will also be introduced, since he's been missing so far. PLEASE REVIEW! Bad or good I don't care. I like criticism, as long as it's gentle. I'm not planning on updating this for a while but that could change if it's liked.